Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Cue the song "Whatshername"

This past weekend was full of class reunion activities.

The class of 73' was having get-togethers and the Class of 75' had events planned. What about 74?????? My class never seems to get it together. We had a 10th and 15th...and nothing since then.
The Class of 75' made their party a multi-year reunion...classes of 73'-74'-75'-76'....which was nice; however I don't know if they were aware that the Class of 73' was having a "60th Birthday Party" the same weekend???? Any way, a friend of ours was in town for the 75' reunion. He lives in the Solomon Islands...so we don't see him often....last time he was here was probably 15 years ago. He was excited....and his enthusiasm was catching. John kind of knew what was planned because a friend of his(John's) kept  him in the loop.( I never saw any mention from anyone on Face Book or online...oh well...neither did any of my close friends.) 
We decided to stop by the bar downtown to see who from 73' was around. We saw some familiar faces. Not nearly as many as they had for their 40th reunion two years ago...but a pretty good turnout just the same. After an hour or two there...we headed back to the beach to see how things were going at the other event.

People watcher that I am I observed a couple of things.... surprise-surprise
One was that the group from 1973 seemed a lot "older" than the 1975 grads. I never realized how much difference 3 years makes! At the 73' reunion at least one other person besides me had had shoulder surgery in the last 3 months. A couple of people were talking about their knee problems, and one person had a walker, another was on oxygen. When we stopped by the second party...most everyone seemed to be going strong....no walkers in sight; just one person on crutches.
Everyone just seemed to have a lot more energy in the younger group. I ran into a couple of people I knew, some recognized me, others I spotted before they saw me. There were one or two that I had not seen since high school...so that was fun. And then one friend appeared out of nowhere...we lost touch a couple of years back. All of the sudden no Christmas card...and no one seemed to know where she had gone. Well...she tapped me on the shoulder and we had fun chatting for a few minutes.

John managed to snap a few kind of blurry photos for us. And then she was off. Had hoped to see her again Saturday night... but she didn't come to the event. Wonder where she'll turn up next????
During the two nights I also came to the conclusion that because we had so many kids on our street when we were growing up; I really didn't go "out" that much. We didn't need to go anywhere...there were always people around on our own street. (and none of those friends were at either one of the reunion parties) I wasn't in a lot of clubs( just one or two) or on any teams....most of what I did was within walking distance of our house. John seemed like he knew everyone...hahah he was looking through the yearbooks getting all excited...and I...just wasn't. Not that I didn't enjoy seeing people, because I did...I guess I just haven't spent a lot of time thinking about it. If I had gone with a group of my close friends I might've been more excited.
Saturday night we decided to once again go up to the venue and see who was around. Hadn't planned on going in; we didn't buy tickets. we thought there would be people at the pool bar, watching football, or other people milling around. Turns out we talked to a few people out in the hallway and the lobby....and almost decided to get a last minute ticket to go in...but we weren't drinking and we had already eaten...and I guess it wasn't worth $35.00 to me to go see who was there. That sounds cheap of me...but what can I say....hahaha
There were two people I saw on the list who had planned to attend...but they never checked in. If they had come...I might've forked out the $$ just to spend some time with them. But Diann and Dixie never showed up...so we left after a short time and watched the Gator game at a nearby bar. It was fun to see the people I saw...and definitely more exciting than my usual weekend plans, so I can't complain. Maybe one of these years my class will get it together...or I'll have my own reunion ...hahaha and will see how it goes. In the meantime it will be interesting to see how the group from 75' holds up over the next couple of years.Next time I see them we'll see how many knees, shoulders, etc are on the mend...and if anyone will be using a walker.......only time will tell......:)
If I ever do plan a reunion...this song is a must....